Granite since 1900
Owners
Finska Stenindustri Ab - Suomen Kiviteollisuus Oy - was founded in 1900 by Mr. I.R. Isaksson, a sea captain, and Mr. Hugo Blankett, a mining engineer with other shareholders. Mr. Hugo Blankett became later the legendary managing director of Finska.Hugo Blankett died in 1949. Some time after his death the company was bought by Oy Telko Ab and in 1959 by Oy Paraisten Kalkki Ab, and finally in March 1963 by Mr. Vilho Kainu and his family.
The company remained at the ownership of the Kainu family until 1985 when it was sold to Outokumpu Oy. In turn, in 1995 Outokumpu Oy sold Finska to European Granites Company (Eurograniet) B.V., which is a part of the large R.E.D. Graniti Group. From this on, Finska has specialized only on quarrying and exporting raw blocks.
Quarries and operations
Finska started to extract stone in 1900 in the Uusikaupunki archipelago in SW Finland, where a quarry of Birkhall Grey was opened. The quarry of Balmoral Red fine-grained was opened in Vehmaa in 1901 followed by the quarry of Balmoral Red coarse-grained original in Taivassalo.
The early 1970's was a time of radical changes in quarrying technology. Wheel loaders replaced the traditional cranes and efficient drilling machines were taken into use, also increasing the production of Finska. New quarries were opened in the 1970's and 1980's. Among these are Eagle Red, Baltic Brown, Carmen Red, Balmoral Red TK, Cardinal Red and Porkkala Red followed by Monola Brown and Balmoral Coarse Pietilä in the 1990's. At the moment Finska has totally 10 quarries in operation.
Until the mid -70's the export of finished monuments formed about 50 per cent of Finska's annual turnover. This business ceased gradually along with the increase of investments in the raw block production and export.
Finska's head office was situated in Uusikaupunki for the first four years and was then moved to Helsinki in 1904 where it remained until 1963 when the office was changed to Vinkkilä.
Export
The export of blocks started in 1901, the first delivery being made to Aberdeen, Scotland.For the first decade Finska had it's own fleet consisting of s/s STEN I, s/s STEN II and s/s Balmoral
In the 1920's Finska started to export blocks to Australia. Great Britain was still by far the biggest buyer, but also such countries as France, Belgium and Germany bought Finska's materials in growing quantities. The first monuments were shipped to the USA and Canada in 1922 which means that the monumental export to these countries lasted over 50 years. The block exports have grown steadily and specially after the big improvements in the quarrying methods in the 1970's.
Today Finska exports blocks to over 30 different countries, Italy, Spain and the Far East countries being the most important ones.
